ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office dismissed on Thursday Pentagon’s latest assessment that the Taliban and Haqqani network were freely operating from Pakistan and instead accused Afghanistan of being an epicentre of terrorism in the region.

“This is more of a rhetoric than anything else. Afghanistan is infested with most terrorist organisations due to the instability there, which has created space for these terrorist elements,” Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.

He was reacting to the recent biannual report of the US Department of Defence on security and stability situation in Afghanistan, which had said: “Afghan-oriented militant groups, including Taliban and Haqqani network’s senior leadership, retain freedom of action from safe havens inside Pakistani territory. The United States continues to be clear with Pakistan about steps it should take to improve the security environment and deny safe havens to terrorist and extremist groups.”

Mr Zakaria recalled the counterterrorism operations undertaken by Pakistani security forces in the tribal areas, which had restored peace there. But he also acknowledged that a large number of terrorists had moved to Afghanistan after the start of the operations.

Examine: Pakistan’s Afghan predicament

The number of “senior commanders of Haqqani network, Taliban, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups killed in Afghanistan this year,” he stressed, by itself told where the leadership of these organisations was currently based.

A senior FO official, in a testimony at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee earlier in the week, had said that the Haqqani network and Taliban had been told to end violence in Afghanistan.

The spokesman in his briefing avoided commenting on the reported statement and said “we remain committed and extend all cooperation to the efforts towards bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan”.

It should be further recalled that Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry had in a rare admission told a TV interviewer that some of Haqqani network/Taliban militants were in Pakistan, but had been instructed not to indulge in any terrorist activity or violence in Afghanistan.

Mr Zakaria renewed Pakistan’s offer to facilitate the Afghan peace process.

Senior officials from Pakistan, Russia and China would meet in Russia on Dec 27 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, besides the overall regional security situation.

Kashmir

The FO spokesman called for trial of Indian occupation forces in Kashmir and Hindu extremist groups for “their crimes against humanity” in the occupied valley.

He said over 150 Kashmiris had been killed since the start of uprising in July, while another 6,000, including children, had been victims of pellet guns that rendered hundreds permanently blind.

“We call upon the UN, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other such organisations to call India to account for its blatant violations of human rights.

Media

In an apparent stiffening of FO’s attitude towards media, the FO spokesman accused certain elements within media of abusing their position with “an ill-intent”.

“It is not good to start a media campaign without establishing the facts on any matter. This tendency of media trial is not a healthy sign in this era of high technology. People have been hurting people by way of their irresponsible act,” Mr Zakaria said, asserting that journalists and social media users had not shown “maturity and nationalism”.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2016